


Trip

by remanth



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Guardian Angel, Trip - Freeform, angel - Freeform, kid!Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4765238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remanth/pseuds/remanth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's pretty sure he has a guardian angel but was never completely sure until one field trip to a quarry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trip

Sam was pretty sure he had a guardian angel. At least, that’s what he called it. It wasn’t a monster, like Dean had told him their dad hunted. A monster wouldn’t save someone, would it? Be a calming influence, a watchful eye that guarded him from the real monsters? It had been around for as long as he could remember, a presence that felt like a calming weight. Even now, at twelve when he should be letting go of imaginary friends and things like that (at least according to Dad), he still couldn’t let go of the feeling of being protected.

It was different than what Dad or Dean did to protect him. Dad was kind of distant, not there most of the time. When he was, it wasn’t ever a “did you do your homework? how are classes going? did you make new friends?” or anything like that. With Dad, it was “did Dean take you shooting today? Did you hit the target? Was there anything weird happening? Did anyone seem off to you?” To be honest, Sam was getting a little tired of it all. He just wanted a slice of normal, a sense of not being a freak because of what his father did and what his father was training him to be.

The only normal he got was from Dean. Dean was the one who checked his homework, who cooked all their meals, who had started teaching him how to cook now that he could see over the stove. Dean was the one who worried over his well-being and how the other kids at school treated him. Sam liked when it was just the two of them. It was comfortable and familiar, more like a home than when their dad was around. Then, he felt like he had to be on his best behavior for a stranger visiting.

But his guardian angel made him feel like he had the smallest idea of what it was like in a normal family. When he’d listened to the other kids talk when he was younger, they liked to discuss their imaginary friends or games they made up or their parents. A lot of them made their mothers sound like wonderful saints who took care of them no matter what. Sam’s guardian made him miss his own mother just a little bit less. Little candies left where he could find them, usually under his pillow. They were always his favorite too. When he was sick, he would sometimes feel what seemed to be a warm hand rubbing his back. The one time he’d been so sick Dean had been scared out of his mind that he wouldn’t make it, Sam could have sworn he saw a humanoid being made of light reaching out with one hand and resting its fingers gently on his forehead. His fever had broken that night and he’d gotten better within a couple days.

And then there was the class trip he’d taken just a month earlier. His entire grade had gone to a quarry as part of his science class. They were covering geology and fossils and the quarry had a plethora of fossils just waiting to be uncovered. The students with Sam’s group had eagerly talked about older siblings’ trips and the different fossils and rocks they’d found. One older sister had found a perfectly preserved trilobite in a stone and been allowed to keep it. Sam was looking forward to rooting around in the dirt and rocks. He enjoyed being active and getting messy, especially when it had nothing to do with monsters or graves. 

At the top of the quarry, there was a long sloping road that led down. It switched back and forth a few times, tire marks in the dirt showing that vehicles used it regularly. His group were crowding close to the edge while waiting to trek down the ramp. The buses were staying up on top as they were a little too big to safely make the descent down. Sam was standing at the very edge, staring over and down at the quarry floor so far below them. Two of his groupmates were joking around behind him, shoving and bumping into each other. Suddenly, one boy shoved the other a little too far and he slammed into Sam’s back. Sam pitched forward, arms wheeling as his mouth opened on a scream trapped inside his throat. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop his momentum and started falling over the edge. One of the girls behind him screamed, the shrill sound echoing in his ears.

Sam had enough time to think “Sorry Dean” before his feet left the firm ground he’d been standing on. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the ground rushing up at him. But as soon as he did, he felt a warmth on his back and hands grabbing onto his arms. He was yanked up and back, his back slamming hard onto the ground. The girl who’d screamed was still screaming and Sam opened his eyes. He stared up at a blue sky and several frightened faces, firmly on the ground and not falling through the air. Just above him, and so see-through that he wasn’t quite sure he was seeing what he was seeing, floated a face. It was a mischievous face with golden brown hair that flopped over the forehead and tawny eyes. A handsome face, one part of Sam’s mind noted absently. The face grinned at him and a finger hovered in front of lips in an unmistakeable shushing gesture. Sam nodded slightly and smiled back at the face when the grin grew wider. Then, it faded away.

By this time, the teachers had reached the edge where they were all standing and had shoved their way in between the students. They fussed over Sam, making sure he was all right. Sam explained that he’d lost his balance and almost gone over the edge before his wheeling arms let him pitch backwards. No mention was made of the two boys who had been shoving each other and they both sent him thankful looks. He insisted the field trip go on and ended up walking next to his science teacher the whole way. It was boring but it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to be alone anyways. He hadn’t been in this school long enough to make friends and he wasn’t going to be staying long enough to go to the trouble.

The students spent a few hours digging happily through the dirt and rocks, exclaiming excitedly when they found interesting ones. Sam looked hard for a fossil, wanting something of his own to keep. It wasn’t until the day was almost over that it happened. As he wandered close to the wall, a rock tumbled down from up above. He looked up quickly but couldn’t see anywhere where the rock could have fallen from. Instead, he saw a faint heat shimmer where one shouldn’t be at all that disappeared even as he saw it. Then, he picked up the rock that had rolled to a stop against one boot. It contained two fossils, one on top of the other on the oblong rock. The first was what Sam recognized as an ammonite, the spiral design of its shell and the ridging picked out in delicate relief. The second he thought was some sort of fern. It was arched gracefully and looked a little bit like a feather. He pocketed the rock, patting it gently and smiling.

When the teachers declared the field trip over, they herded the students back up the winding road and into the buses. Sam took a spot in the front where he knew no one liked to sit. He’d had the whole seat to himself on the way here and had it to himself again after all the students got back on the buses. Looking out the window, Sam took the rock out of his pocket and rubbed a finger over the fossils. As he did so, he saw the transparent face again just outside the window. It winked at him and held a finger over its lips again. Sam nodded, pressing one hand to the window. A ghostly hand appeared, pressed against the window for a second before pulling back and waving. Sam kept his eyes on the apparition until the bus turned and he couldn’t see it anymore.

Settling back in his seat, Sam held the rock gently in his hands and rubbed a finger over the fossils meditatively. Now he was completely sure he had a guardian angel and it was in no way a monster. It had kept him from going over that cliff and had given him this rock with the perfect fossils in it. As the bus headed back to the school were Sam knew Dean was waiting to take him back to the motel, Sam smiled and felt like maybe now he knew what it was like to have a mother. At least a little. But he wasn’t going to tell Dean. This was something he wanted to keep to himself. Besides, Dean had never believed in his guardian angel before and knowing that Sam had seen him now would probably lead his older brother into wanting to hunt it. Sam wasn’t going to let it happen. Not when he’d finally seen him. When the bus pulled into the school some time later, Sam was tired and happy at the same time. The day had turned out pretty well and he’d come up with a name for his guardian angel. He decided to call him Gabriel.


End file.
